


What Comes Next

by WeBuiltThePyramids



Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Developing Relationship, F/M, Past Relationship(s), Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-07-11 13:30:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7053688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeBuiltThePyramids/pseuds/WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set immediately following the season two finale.  Walter and Paige talk about their feelings.  Happy and Toby talk about her past.  My "case-less" season three premiere, inspired by katasstrophee.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [katasstrophee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katasstrophee/gifts).



> So Kat (katasstrophee) had expressed a desire to have the season three premiere have no case. Walter catching up with Paige, telling her how he feels, and them talking, and us learning about Happy's marriage and her and Toby figuring out where they go from there. I thought that that was a brilliant idea and decided to try my hand at writing it.

Walter's ragged breathing had given him a slightly sore throat, and by the time he reached Lake Tahoe, he'd drank so much water that he desperately had to pee.

He'd held off the entire drive – even when he had to stop to get gas. The two minutes it would take to run inside the station felt like an agonizing amount of time. Every moment he was stationary, he could only envision Paige getting farther away, with no idea that he was coming for her.

He felt absolutely terrible. He'd always picked up on the signs that she'd been giving him since Tim showed up – signs that she was still longing for him – but he hadn't fully realized the magnitude of them – of everything – until tonight. But as he drove to Lake Tahoe, their conversations and looks of the past weeks flashing before his eyes, he realized how much he had hurt her with his denial.

He had promised the day that they'd met he wouldn't let anything happen to her, and on one hand, it was a promise that he'd never failed to keep. But on the other hand, he'd made her miserable with his refusal to look in on himself and realize that his feelings for her weren't anything he _could_ bury.

And now that he realized exactly what his feelings meant, they weren't anything he _wanted_ to bury.

But with only three miles to the hotel that he'd originally booked for him and Linda, Walter realized that while he could pour out his heart to Paige on an empty stomach, he couldn't do it on a full bladder.

He pulled off onto the side of the road, still not wanting to take the time to run into a gas station.

The remaining three miles felt like an eternity.

Upon pulling into the parking lot of the hotel, his heart leapt when he saw Tim's car in the light of one of the lamp posts in fire lane that extended from the edge of the building to the hotel's main entrance. They had beaten him by less than a minute.

Walter jumped out of the car, not sure if he was over the white lines, but not caring. The door slammed, louder than he'd intended, causing both Paige and Tim – just about to head inside, to jump and look toward him.

When her eyes hit his, he froze.

She stared at him for several seconds, and he wanted to walk quickly toward her, but for some reason the scenarios he had running through his head had never included Tim standing next to her. It didn't scare him off – he was past that now – but it did _throw_ him off.

They began to walk toward him, disappearing into the darkness between the two lamp posts and then appearing again. Then Tim stopped, and Paige kept walking. He couldn't see her very well – it was four a.m., after all – but her tone conveyed her confusion. "Walter?"

"Paige."

For some reason the need to immediately follow his name with hers overwhelmed anything else. He stopped in the glow of a streetlight, the last one between them, hoping she'd walk forward into it. As sure as he was about this – and he was – he didn't think he could do it in darkness. He had to see her.

And she did, stepping forward, just into the reaches of the light. The effect made it almost impossible to remember that Tim was still there, behind her, his silhouette seemingly _looming_.

Then he spoke. "I'll, uh...I'll go check in."

The silhouette faded away into the dark, and seconds later, Tim appeared in the next streetlight, the one nearest to the hotel's main entrance. He passed his car and entered the hotel, without looking back.

"Walter," she said, stepping closer. "What...what are you doing here?"

He was suddenly nervous again, this time for a completely different reason. Before, when he'd given her the tickets, it was his fear of failure that stopped him – his fear of messing up any romantic relationship they tried to have and ruining everything. Now, suddenly, after eight hours of being unable to contact her and spending those eight hours thinking about what Toby had said – that Tim was quite the catch – he was afraid that he was too late.

_You wouldn't have driven all this way if you didn't believe she feels the same way._

The surge of confidence that thought brought him was gone almost immediately.

_You were also positive that you'd save your sister. And that Paige would wait until whenever you decided you were ready._

He cleared his throat, stepping a little closer. He wanted to take her hands. Or maybe put his hands up to her face. But he didn't dare. She'd just spent nearly eight hours in a car with Tim. Eight hours was a lot of time to talk.

"I came here because I had to...I realized..." he furrowed his brow. Words were always hard for him and now he was stumbling all over them. He took a breath, and the words just spilled out.

"I love you."

* * *

Happy had asked – demanded – that Toby not follow her.

She knew that despite his impulsive tendencies, despite his need to know everything and his desire to fulfill all of his emotional needs at the moment he first craved them, he wouldn't pursue her tonight. She hoped he wasn't out doing something destructive. She wished she could guarantee his safety while giving herself the distance she needed tonight.

She loved him, even though she'd never said it to his face.

Happy decided that she'd driven far enough. Pulling up to the curb, she threw some quarters into the meter and walked a block before finding solace in an empty alley behind some restaurants. Finding an open spot along the wall, she sank down, pulling her knees up to her chest.

_Four more months. All I needed was four more months._

She sat in the alley, her head spinning. She could feel her phone vibrating in her pocket and ignored it, not wanting to talk to anyone. Happy couldn't focus.

She was transported back to the last night she spent with Mamie. They'd only been given about six hours' notice.

" _I don't think you should come along," Mamie said, running her fingers along Happy's hip._

_They'd already discussed it. They already knew that Happy would be staying behind._

" _I know."_

" _I wish I'd be able to know how things work out with this Walter. I wish I could meet him." Mamie shifted her weight. "I think he'll be good for you."_

" _I've never met someone who understands me on the level he does," Happy said. "I know that it's my nature to pull away from anything that feels like a real connection, but...it's like my brain saw his and said 'yeah, I'm supposed to work with you'."_

" _Kinda like how we saw each other and thought hey, let's see how things work?"_

" _Yeah." Happy stretched, her toes digging into the mattress. "And it did. For a while."_

" _It did," Mamie said, smiling affectionately. Happy was grateful to her. They'd been growing slowly apart for a while – even before Sam Rupp – but they didn't hate each other. They certainly wouldn't be spending the last night they'd see each other tangled up if they did. "Maybe this Walter O'Brien will be your next sixteen months."_

" _I guarantee you," Happy said, "I'm not going to marry him."_

" _No," Mamie said, laughing, "not from what you've told me. Not your type. But you know, that might mean your relationship will last longer. Though of course" she said, "if you ever meet someone..."_

" _I won't," Happy said quickly. It wasn't a dramatic, I – will – never – love – another promise. She'd just been burned too many times. Ironically, the wife she was about to never see again and wasn't in love with anymore was the only one who had never completely let her down – but she just felt that the chances of falling in love again, permanently, enough to want to marry them...it wasn't going to happen. "At least not in the seven years."_

" _Then you don't have to worry about a thing," Mamie said. "Once the seven years are up, you're a free agent."_

Happy dug her heels in, pushing them forward, straightening her legs as the backs of her shoes rubbed hard onto the concrete.

She'd always been a little afraid of how she felt for Toby. And honestly, if she thought back on it, Mamie wasn't even on her radar in terms of a possible obstacle to a relationship with him. True, her wife was an example of how things that felt real sometimes turned out to be a for now instead of a forever. But it was her fear of abandonment, of losing Toby as a friend if their relationship flamed out, that had really held her back. When she'd surrendered to her feelings, allowed herself to accept his declarations of love and allowed herself to enjoy his hands on her and allowed him to explore her body and her heart, she wasn't at all worried about the timing. After all, there was only eight months left.

She wiped her eyes. What she had felt for Mamie, once, was no less real than what she felt for Toby, but Mamie had been fleeting, temporary, far less intense than what the psychiatrist did to her heart and she knew in the depths of her soul that Toby was going to be her permanence.

If he'd only waited, if he'd only been slightly less eager, if only four more months had passed before he dropped to his knee and asked her to spend the rest of her life with him, she could have said yes, could have teared up for the reason that she wanted to, could have allowed herself to be happy without betraying Mamie, without putting her at risk.

But instead, she'd panicked, fleeing the scene, unable to decide between providing an explanation and honoring a sacred promise she'd made eighty months ago.


	2. Chapter 2

Paige's head was spinning.

When he'd first presented her with the tickets, she'd thought he was going to ask her to go with him. On a date, because that's what it would have been. No one was so nervous about hanging out with a friend, not one they'd known for nearly two years. But when he'd proposed she take Tim, her disappointment was so crushing she'd managed to convince herself that what she'd seen from him wasn't nerves at all.

Last night, she'd asked him if he wanted her to stay. She'd presented it as a possible necessity, to help smooth things out with Happy and Toby, wanting to hear him ask her to stay _so badly_ that she was willing to hear it in a context that had nothing at all to do with the two of them.

But he had still told her to go.

All that time, she'd just wanted something. A _do you want to go on a date with me?_ A _I still have feelings for you._ Even a _don't go to Lake Tahoe with Tim, stay here and help the team._ She was beginning to feel like an idiot for daring to hope for any of those things. She had spent the entire car ride to Lake Tahoe silently trying to convince herself that everything was okay.

But suddenly, here he was, standing in front of her eight hours from home, and he wasn't asking her on a date, he wasn't asking her to forego this weekend for the sake of their Scorpion family, although any of that would have been enough.

He was telling her that _he loved her_.

She could hear his breathing through his slightly parted lips, and she wondered if this time it was nerves or exhilaration. Perhaps desperation, as he must have driven like mad to catch them just as they were arriving, considering the head start. And his eyes...the way he looked at her sometimes had been a confusing, almost tortuous experience for her because she'd never known exactly what those looks said. Now she knew. And she knew he knew. And it was glorious and terrifying to be on the receiving end of such intensity.

It wasn't until Walter blurted "please say something," that she realized she hadn't.

"I thought you didn't believe in that stuff."

She bit her lip, wanting to kick herself. Walter O'Brien, the man she was crazy about, the man who struggled constantly with expressing himself, was telling her that he loved her and she was _challenging_ it.

That's how he would take it anyway – as an indication that she did not believe him, whereas all she wanted was to hear him say it again.

"I...I didn't," he said, looking down. "Before. But now, I just...I just want you..."

Walter trailed off, glancing away, and Paige stepped closer, her eyebrows ticking up a fraction. "What?"

His eyes lifted to meet hers. "I...I think that was the end of that sentence."

She shuffled forward a little more – they were standing very close now – and cocked her head while tipping it back slightly. "You love me."

He nodded, his eyes locked on hers. Slowly, Paige lifted her hands and placed them on the sides of his face. She was pleased when she felt his fingers brush her sides, even more so when they gained confidence and rested firmly against her. When they came into contact, he let out an audible breath, as if relieved. She wanted to kiss him, she so badly wanted to kiss him, but they had so much to talk about, so much unsaid to say, so much to _work out_...

A conversation was needed, yes, but did they really have to talk _first_?

Her hands drew him to her – or rather, they encouraged him to lean in of his own choice – she parted her lips, and he did too.

Their first kiss was awkward, frantic, _startling_. Their second – everyone who knew about it considered it a kiss even despite the circumstances – was necessary. This one was slow. Passionate. A small whimper caught in her throat; she was almost overwhelmed by how she got the sense that Walter was trying to channel every ounce of feeling he had into what they were doing. She felt his arms slide fully around her, holding her tight, and she felt his breath on her lip as he exhaled through his nose. The intensity she'd seen in his eyes was transferred to her through his mouth and arms and she felt weak in the knees.

She felt a sudden, unpleasant sensation on the back of her neck and remembered that they were outside at night, at the full mercy of the insects. She pushed the stinging out of her mind by pressing herself against Walter, letting him hold her in place. Her bottom lip broke away from his briefly so she could inhale, and when her mouth returned fully to his, a small sound reverberated in his throat, one that she liked hearing.

She could keep on kissing him like this, but until the talked they would be in a strange sort of limbo that she wanted to get out of – today. Their lips separated, lingering barely an inch from the other, and Paige opened her eyes. "Walter?"

His eyes stayed closed. "Hmmm?"

"We have a lot to talk about."

Walter slowly opened his eyes and nodded, and she dropped her hands from his face to his chest. They looked at each other for a long moment, his arms still around her as they stood in the glow of the streetlight. He sighed, nodding again. "I know."

"You drove all the way here to tell me what you told me."

"Yes."

"I do want to know why it happened like this."

"I can tell you."

"Good." She smiled, suddenly a bit shy again. "I'd like to hear about it." She realized that this was coming off as if he was the only one who had things to say. "I can tell you about...about things. Too."

"Okay." He smiled, tipping his head slightly to the side. "So are we..."

"Going to try a relationship?" She could tell by his smile that she'd correctly finished his intended sentence. She smiled again - or more broadly thatn she already was. "I _think_ that's what we're doing, yes."

"Good." Shifting his weight awkwardly, Walter cleared his throat. "Uh...of all the possible scenarios that could have unfolded this weekend, this wasn't a sentence I thought I'd be saying but..." he glanced in the direction of his car. "Would you like to...will you drive back to L.A.? With me?"

They'd been awake nearly twenty four hours. But she wasn't tired anymore. "Yeah," she said, "I'd really, really like that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to alternate storylines per chapter – some chapters might have both, but generally I'm just going to go from one to the other. Chapter three will be solely Happy/Quintis!


	3. Chapter 3

Happy went home.

She hadn't planned on it. She'd thought of composing herself, getting in the car, and just driving. It's what she did the night she and Mamie had decided to separate, and it's what she did three weeks later when Mamie had gone.

She shook her head. If the events that had led to Mamie leaving had occurred just a few months later, they might have already been divorced. Then, Toby proposing a few months into their relationship wouldn't have been an issue. Mamie wouldn't be between them.

Mamie _shouldn't_ be between them. Happy's feelings for her had been gone for years. Even if she walked back into her life now, nothing between her and Toby would change any more than Drew popping back up had changed the way Paige felt about Walter.

Walter and Paige. Happy had been lecturing her friend just the previous night about how he was acting to Paige.

_You're gonna lose her altogether._

Happy reached for her phone. **I'm home** _,_ she texted.

The response was almost immediate. **Okay** _._

It was one word that affirmed how complicated the situation was. Toby didn't know how to respond. He didn't know if he could ask to come over, say he was coming over, or if he should see how she was. Nor did he immediately ask for an explanation over text. He didn't call her to demand one over the phone. Beyond acknowledging that he knew she was home, there was nothing. No communication.

 _This is bad._ Happy tipped her head up toward the ceiling, biting her lower lip. She and Walter were experiencing different types of conflict regarding Toby and Paige, but as she sat on the couch, cross legged, holding her phone in both her hands, she knew what kind of agony had been swirling around in Walter's gut the previous night. _What do I do? What is right? I want to, but can I?_

She made a decision.

**Come over. We need to talk.**

This time, she waited nearly three excruciating minutes for a response. **Next bus is in ten minutes. I'll be on it.**

 _Bus?_ He had a car. Happy went pale as she read between the lines. _Oh god._

**Did Toby drink a lot last night?**

She deleted the text before sending it. Cabe would take it to assume that she was ready to talk, and she wasn't, not to him, not to Toby either, but she knew she had to. She hadn't told anyone in nearly seven years because it was the only way to make sure the secret spread no farther. People always told. Whether it was their mother or their boyfriend or their Best Friend Five-Ever, people always told. There was always some reason that they considered justifiable. The only way to make sure it didn't get out, didn't get farther, was to _just. keep. quiet._

Happy had guarded Mamie for so, so long. But today, she would tell Toby.

People always told.

* * *

"Hi."

"Hi."

It was the most formal greeting that they'd exchanged in a long time. Happy could tell that he hadn't slept. He could undoubtedly tell the same about her. She stood aside. "Come in."

He nodded. "Okay."

He was tormented. She could tell. His eyes were sad and his jaw was set. As far as he knew, she'd been blatantly and maliciously keeping this secret from him all this time. As far as he knew, she was still in love. As far as he knew, she was using him.

Happy hoped he didn't think any of those things. But she was a genius. She knew that without the context, none of those feelings were out of the realm of possibility and none of them would be unexpected. She hoped that once she told him, he would understand.

"Do you want to sit or stand?" She asked.

It was an odd question, but he scratched the back of his neck, glancing around her apartment as if surveying the possible places to sit down, as if he had never been there before. "Sit. I guess. I mean, generally when you're delivering shocking news to someone you suggest they sit down first. I was kneeling, so I suppose that was a start."

Happy wrung her hands. "Okay."

Toby moved to sit down in the recliner adjacent to the couch, but then he straightened up. Happy's eyebrows ticked up a fraction as he bent over her coffee table. Dragging it out of the way, he pulled up a chair from her kitchen table and sat down in it. Happy understood. She sat on the couch across from him. "How much did you drink?"

"I'm fine."

"Okay." She fidgeted. "Do you want me to just start talking, or do you have questions first?"

"What's his name?"

"Mamie."

Toby's expression didn't change, but he studied her, unblinking, for what felt like several minutes. "Mamie."

"Yes. Mamie Danvers."

"Okay." He cocked his head to the side, and the lighting caught the wetness of his eyes, forming a glint. "Happy, _why_?"

"I loved her. It was kind of this...this whirlwind. I guess." Happy found an uneven piece of skin against her thumbnail and ran a finger over it.

"That isn't like you."

"No. It isn't. And it wasn't, either, but...it might be partly why I'm as reserved as I am. Any good feeling I've ever had about anyone was always fleeting. Mamie and I, from the time we met to the time our relationship was over was just sixteen months. She joked that Walter – I had just met him, we weren't colleagues then of course, but we already knew our minds worked in the same way – might be my next sixteen months. The next temporary block of my life."

"She knew Walter."

"No." Happy shook her head vigorously. "No, Toby. I was the only one on the team keeping this from you. I was keeping it from everybody."

"But why?" Toby leaned forward. "Happy, you and I are in a relationship. How could you keep a marriage from me? All our time together, it..."

"Don't say it," Happy said, her voice trembling. "Don't say it's like a lie. None of it is."

"I wasn't going to say that." He placed his hands on his knees. "Our time together means something to me, something really special. And I know you feel that way too. I just don't understand how something this big and significant is something you wouldn't share."

"Maybe _because_ it's this significant?" Her nail ripped the piece of skin loose, drawing blood. She put her thumb up to her mouth. "And anyway," she said in a low voice. "it wasn't going to even matter for very much longer."

Toby looked – understandably – confused. "What wasn't going to matter for very much longer?"

Happy sighed, biting her lip. She looked away from Toby. "In four months, I won't be married anymore."

"So...you're getting divorced."

"Not exactly." She looked back at him. "In four months, Mamie will be legally dead."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will probably update Serendipity and In The Name of Science before I update this one again, but no updates should be too long in coming. I hope to have all three fics updated before Friday since I'll be spending the weekend away.

Tim was standing in the lobby near the elevator, the folder with, presumably, their room keys in his hand. When he saw her, he didn't smile. She could see his eyes searching her face and she knew that he was already unsure if she would be staying.

"Hey," she said as she reached him. "Um..."

He gave her a resigned smile. "You're going to leave."

"I..." Paige froze with her mouth half open. She wanted to leave. She was _going_ to leave. But standing in front of Tim, she felt horrible, _wrong_ , for her plans. She found herself at a complete loss for words as she tried to begin.

Tim was standing still, that smile still on his face, waiting for her to finish her sentence. When she continued to struggle, he spoke. "It's okay."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I really am, it's just..."

"Walter," he said. "I kinda..." he bit his lip and nodded.

"I led you on. That was wrong of me."

"There's nothing wrong with trying something out. Seeing if it worked."

"There is when I was continually hoping that he might show an interest in me." _And when I wouldn't have hesitated to come here with him._

"I'm not gonna be an ass," he said. "Paige, really, it's okay."

She still felt horrible – almost more so at his understanding. "Thank you," she said quietly.

Tim cocked his head and she smiled, stepping forward to hug him. He gave a little chuckle when they separated. "You know, for a moment," he said with a smile, "I thought I had you."

His words hung in the air for a moment, and then he spoke again. "You know, I mean..." he glanced around the lobby. " _I_ could go. This is a pretty romantic hotel. If you and Walter..."

"No." She shook her head. "We're going back to L.A."

* * *

 "Okay," Paige said as eased into the passenger seat, her bags already in the back. "Let's go."

"Tim's..."

"He's fine," she said. "He understands."

Walter nodded – still in slight disbelief that his mad dash to Lake Tahoe, which could very well have been too little, too late – was working out as well as he'd dared to hope when he lunged for his keys back at the garage. They looked at each other, both with tiny smiles on their faces. He wondered if she was trying as hard not to grin as he was – her expression certainly looked like how his felt. "Okay," he said, nodding again as he started up the car. "Back home. Talking."

"Yeah," she said, studying him. "Um..."

Walter glanced at her. "What?"

"Walter, I don't know if I should lead with this, but...why did you give Tim and I those tickets?"

He sighed. He could tell that she'd been wanting to ask him that from before she even got in the car. It didn't make sense to her. He loved her. It wasn't like he'd given them to her a year ago when he possibly had felt differently. It was _literally_ two days ago. "They _were_...originally...for Linda. But Happy told me to ask you. And I wanted to." He looked at her as the car glided to a halt at a stop sign. "I was afraid. That if it didn't work, I'd lose you. And you're..." he shook his head. "You're too important to me. I..." he sighed. "I felt that if I messed up you'd go away, and I can't imagine going through the rest of my life without you there."

Judging by the expression on Paige's face, Walter had said something exactly right. They looked at each other, eyes locked.

A car beeped its horn from right behind them. Walter frowned looking in the rearview mirror. "It's four a.m., who in the world..."

"Juuuust drive," she said with a smile. "We have a long time to talk."

She seemed to sense that he was agitated at being interrupted by the car. Walter looked over at her again. "I'm still worried," he said. "I know I'm going to make mistakes."

"I've told you before," she said, "there are mistakes in every relationship. You don't have to be perfect, Walter. I know I won't be."

"What were your feelings for Tim?" He blurted. As soon as he spoke, he wanted to take the words back. He should move the conversation forward in an organic way, not like some frantic Q & A session.

Paige smiled tensely, looking as if she'd expected the question but wasn't looking forward to answer it. "He's a really nice guy. He liked me, and he told me. He has a good sense of humor. I enjoyed spending time with him. We kept going out to dinner, and I was having a good time." She shrugged. "You...you didn't seem interested, anymore." Her brow furrowed slightly. "I really thought, at Christmastime, that we were getting somewhere. Why did you start to push me away?"

He knew he would have to answer her. But of all the things he potentially would say today, it was the most difficult answer to articulate. "I..." he drew in a long breath and exhaled sharply before being able to continue. "It was getting more difficult for me to ignore you."

"Excuse me?"

"That...that was p...poorly phrased. What I mean is..." he glanced at her again, glad that there were so few cars on the road. "I enjoy when we're...talking, or...or going out with Ralph. I used to immerse myself in intellectual projects but lately I've realized that my favorite way to pass the time when we aren't working is engaging with you. And lately, you've been...you've been everywhere, and it's...it's become overwhelming."

"What do you mean by that?"

Her voice was gentle, her eyes searching his face. He was glad that the light ahead of them was turning yellow – he was close enough to gun it, but he stopped the car instead. "What I said about...about Toby last night. I wasn't talking about him."

Her eyes widened slightly. Emboldened by her responses since they'd gotten in the car, he forged on. "I uh...I can't get you out of my head. I'll come into a room I know you're in and I'll look for where you are. I don't like days you have to take Ralph to school before you come to the garage because it means you arrive later. And when you leave..." he took another painful breath. He didn't like it when she left. He really, _really_ didn't like it when she left. "When you leave I wonder what you're doing back home. I wonder if you're cooking, reading, taking a bath, or if you're watching TV, or going to bed early." He bit his lip. "I wonder if you're sleeping well."

The light turned green, and he shifted into the far right lane, preparing to enter the freeway. "It's gotten to the point that when I'm by myself, I bring you there. In my mind. And the closer I get to you..." he looked at her again, alternating between her face and the road ahead of them. "I've been around many attractive women. In my life. But it was more that I...u-understood that they were attractive, rather than feeling anything toward them myself. I'd just assumed that I wasn't capable of experiencing that. But with you..." Women liked hearing that someone was attracted to them, didn't they? Why was this so difficult? "...the closer I got to you the more aware I was of you. And it got distracting. It is distracting. I had to push you away because I was coming apart." He didn't say what he was thinking – _I'm so attracted to you sometimes I can't think straight._ He'd seen the movies where physical attraction was portrayed as a shallow aspect to a relationship, and he didn't want Paige to think that any of his feelings for her came out of this longing to see and experience her body. Strangely enough, it was almost the opposite. When he'd met her, he hadn't paid a moment's thought to the way she looked. But as they'd grown closer, as she grew more important to him, he found her more and more physically appealing. He'd read something once that said that some people weren't capable of attraction for another until an emotional bond was formed. Walter couldn't remember what that was called, but it fit him. He was so attracted to her _because_ he loved her, of that he was sure – and that was terrifying to him.

He realized that the car was wobbling. It was taking so much out of him to admit to this, to be as vulnerable with her as he'd ever been with anyone, that it was affecting his ability to drive.

"Walter, pull over."

"We have to get home."

"We _will_ get home. There's an exit up here, pull off."

He did as she asked, pulling the car into a gas station just off the exit. He parked by the air machine, looking over at her curiously.

Paige exited the car, walking around to his side and tapping on the window. He rolled it down and she smiled, amused. " _Get out_ , Walter."

He obliged, wondering what she wanted. His body was tense, anxious, wrung out from all the admissions, and when she took both his hands in hers, he felt a rush of gratefulness course through him.

She saw how tense he was, how afraid he was of saying something wrong, and how exhausting it was to be emotionally vulnerable, and she was providing reassurance, facing him, touching him like she couldn't do in the car. He let out a long, shaky breath.

"It's okay," she said gently, her thumbs rubbing his hands. She let go of them and ran her hands slowly up his arms, then over to rest on his chest. "Everything you're saying is right. Don't be nervous. Intensity can be overwhelming. But I promise you..." she slid a hand up to his jawline. "You're safe with me."

Her eyes were searching his for any sign that she was helping. "I know," He said, and he nodded, knowing his breathing was coming easier because his lungs didn't hurt as much anymore. How was it that she got him so wound and managed to relax him almost simultaneously? He knew the answer to his own question. She made him feel things with an incredible intensity, and she told him that it was okay to feel those things. "It's just difficult to get out of my head, s-sometimes. But I want to. I want to."

She nodded, smiling. "Would it be easier," she asked quietly, dropping her eyes to his lips, "if you knew that I love you?"

He blinked away the wetness that sprang to his eyes. He'd never expected hearing a woman say that to him – and if any other woman had, he knew he'd have been _incredibly_ uncomfortable. But to hear it from Paige... "You do?"

His voice was thick with emotion, and she nodded, stepping closer, pushing him against the side of the car as she pressed against him, smiling right up into his eyes. "I do."

Realizing that he loved her was overwhelming enough. But that wasn't all. _They loved each other._ This incredible thing that he felt for her was reciprocated. He pulled her closer, a hand coming up to cradle the back of her head as her chin nestled into the crook of his neck. "Oh, God," he breathed, in sheer relief.

They'd held on to each other before – for show, emotional support, for dear life. But never liked this.

Walter liked holding her like this.


	5. Chapter 5

_Legally dead._   With the words hanging in the air, they sounded like some parody horror film starring a Witherspoon lookalike.  Toby stared at Happy, waiting for her to continue speaking.  She knew she should, but she wasn’t sure where to start.  She wished he’d start asking questions, showing her where he wanted the gaps to be filled in, giving her something to build off of.

The silence that hung in the air was broken by Toby’s phone buzzing.  He and Happy both jumped in surprise.

“Are you going to get that?” Happy asked.

“It can wait.”

Her eyebrows shot up.  “It’s Walter.  Answer it.  It’s okay.”

“It’s not a...I mean...it’s a text.” Toby reached for the phone and stared at the display.  _How are you holding up?_

His eyes widened.

“What?” Happy asked.

“Walter wants to know how I’m holding up.  Oh my God.”

“Walter asked you that? It doesn’t sound like him.”

“He went after Paige.  He must be with her.  This is exactly how she’d tell him to phrase the text.  Good for him.”  He put the phone back on the table.  “I’m sure we’ll hear about it later.  So, Mamie will be....will be dead?”

“ _Legally_ dead,” she emphasized.

“I don’t understand.”

Happy sighed.  “Mamie witnessed a gang hit.  Police officer working undercover was killed by a rival gang. They weren’t sure if his cover had been blown or not but since he was an officer, they were desperate to close the case.  Mamie was dumpster diving that night and witnessed the whole thing.  She knew things about the crime that she couldn’t have known unless she was there, but she was too tiny to have committed the murder herself.  She was their star witness.”

_“They’re giving you good security to the courthouse, right?”_

_“Best they got,” Mamie said, tugging at her collar.  “Does this look okay?”_

_If it was six months ago, Happy would have responded with “it’d look better coming off” but times had changed.  It was moments like this that she realized just how much.  “Yeah, it’s a little crooked on the...yep, there you go,” she said, nodding as Mamie fixed the wrinkle.  “You look like you’re about to destroy Sam Rupp.  And not in a messy, wrench to the fusebox way,” she added.  “More like...” her fingers moved as if she was plucking an invisible violin.  “More like wire cutting a truck sized bomb so it becomes nearly useless.”_

_“It won’t be like that.  You know Rupp’s got men on the outside, dozens of them.”_

“Had they already mentioned the possibility of witness protection?” Toby asked, realizing suddenly where this story was going.

“They’d said they would protect us,” Happy said.  “But that wasn’t brought up until the last minute.  I don’t like to think that they’d only protect her if they liked her testimony, but honestly, if she hadn’t been strong in there – she had to be cross examined, you know – then...” She shrugged.  “I honestly don’t know.  I hadn’t much faith in stuff like that, you know, at the time.”

“And the protection included you.”

“Yes.  But...” Happy shrugged.  “When they brought it up – we were at a safe house after the testimony – they were going to provide for me as well.  I was her spouse.  They do that for immediate family.  But Mamie and I...our relationship was already over.  We had already talked about divorce.  We hadn’t started any other proceedings yet – neither of us had filed.  But...it was coming.  They told me we had until morning to decide, but we’d already discussed it on our own.  If they offered to hide her long term, I wouldn’t go with her.  Not with our relationship already cooling off.  They’d wisk us off to a new city, possibly thousands of miles away, and we’d have no contact with anything that came before.  If Mamie and I still were happy, I would have gone.  But...”

“But you weren’t.”

“But we weren’t.  And I’d already met Walter.”

“Walter? He was part of why you stayed?”

“When I met him, it was the first time I’d met someone who was...” she twiddled her thumbs, “like me.  I didn’t want to leave that behind to follow someone I knew I wasn’t supposed to spend my life with.  You know me.  I don’t follow people.   And Walter was a possibility.  A chance to see what I could accomplish with another genius.  Like Hell I was going to throw that away for some new life.”

Toby nodded.  “Okay, but...why didn’t they just fake divorce papers? If you were going to get divorced anyway.”

“Because we hadn’t started the proceedings yet.  If suddenly we were divorced, and she vanished, then it’d be obvious that they were trying to tie things up.  It’d be too convenient.  They’d know what happened.”

“Mamie does her testimony and then vanishes...wouldn’t they be able to guess anyway?”

“No.” Happy shifted her weight. “They faked an investigation.  When they sent her off, they generated fake tips, brought in members of the gang and questioned them on her disappearance.  It was a half – hearted investigation to anyone who knew what was really going on, but there weren’t many that did.  The more that know, the greater likelihood that someone finds out who shouldn’t find out, you know.”

“But to the gang, it seemed as if they really were looking for her.”

Happy nodded.  “Yeah.  And what happens when someone is missing, is after a certain amount of time, they’re legally dead.  In this case, it was seven years.  And when someone’s spouse is dead, then they’re not married anymore.  So seven years after she vanished, I could marry again.  If I wanted to.  But now...” She shrugged.  “Toby, I still have four more months to go.”

“Why...” Toby was shaking his head, looking hurt.  “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?

Happy looked agitated.  “ _The more that know, the greater likelihood that someone finds out who shouldn’t find out._ ” She’d just said that – literally just said that – and it frustrated her that he had to ask.  She knew he was hurt.  She knew he wanted answers, but _god_ couldn’t he connect _some_ dots himself?

She supposed neither of them were being entirely fair with the other.  Sighing, Happy looked down.  “I made a promise by staying behind.  That I’d protect her.  That I’d play the part of a grieving widow, and that no one would ever know that she was still alive.  I couldn’t tell you, Toby.  I’d been made so many promises in my life...everyone broke them.  I wasn’t about to do the same thing to her.”

A tear threatened to leak out of one of her eyes, and she wiped it away with the back of her hands.  “And I was so close to doing it.  I was so close to it _not mattering_.”  Her voice was cracking; she hated it for betraying her, and she put her hand over both her eyes, trying to compose herself.

“Hey.  Hey, Happy.”

She felt the cushion shift as he sat down beside her, and then she was in his arms, felt his lips pressing against her temple as the tears flooded out.


	6. Chapter 6

Neither Walter nor Paige ordered food, and she could tell from the way his eyelids were drooping as he returned from washing his face in the bathroom that the lack of sleep was finally getting the best of him.  She was exhausted too – but it had to be worse for him.  She had split the driving to Lake Tahoe, and he’d come the entire way himself.  Plus, the amount of emotion he had been showing her, she didn’t doubt he was truthful about how he felt for her and she knew that accessing his emotional vault drained him.  He wasn’t used to it.

“Toby hasn’t answered my text,” he remarked.  "I wrote it just the way you said."

“Maybe he’s with Happy,” Paige said.  “I hope so.  They need to talk.  I can’t believe Happy is married.  Did you know?”

Walter shook his head.  “No.”  He shook his head.  “She was giving me all this advice about you.  About how you and I trust each other and how that’s the foundation for a...a lasting relationship and this entire time...”

“We don’t know the whole story,” Paige said.  “A lot of the time things aren’t as they appear to be at first.  And legalities only mean so much in the long run.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that Happy’s marriage is over.  She’s not living with him, she’s not even seeing them as far as we know.  She’s always at work, at her dad’s, or with Toby.  They might legally still be married, but...but her heart is Toby’s, Walter.  She’s moved on.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t know.  Although....” he shrugged.  “I guess a lot of things take me a while to figure out.”  He gave her a slightly nervous looking smile.  “I’m not married, I can tell you that.”

She laughed. “Me either.” She tapped a finger on the table.  “Although I know we still have things to talk about, too.”  He’d been doing a lot of talking this morning, so she gave him what she hoped was an encouraging smile.  “You want to know...anything?”

“What was it you saw in him?” She could tell by the look on his face that he was desperate to know.  “I mean I know...it’s logical, I suppose.  I know he’s handsome, and a Navy SEAL.”

“He’s a good looking man, Walter,” she said, “but that wasn’t it...or not all of it.  He’s kind.  He was interested in learning about me.  He made sure that I was having a good time when we went out.  It was nice to have someone interested that way.”

“But you...” He looked confused.  “But you only knew him for...you couldn’t...”

She knew what he was trying to say.  “No, Walter.  I didn’t love him.  We still hardly know him.”

“Then why...”

“Did you love Janice? Linda?”

“That was different.”

She cocked her head. “ _How_?”

“I...” He stared at her in what seemed like surprise, as if it had never occurred to him that in this respect, they might be similar.  “I...uh...” he cleared his throat.  “I dated Janice because she was intelligent.  Pretty by society’s standards.  And she was interested in me.  I thought if it was possible to make a relationship work, it would be with someone like that.”

An experiment.  Paige nodded.  That sounded like the Walter she knew.  “And...and Linda?”  He looked immediately uncomfortable and she frowned.  “What?”

“I think...I...I didn’t know what it was about Linda until last night.  When I was driving to you.”  He looked at her, as if seeking encouragement to go on.  She gave him a small smile.  “My, uh, my feeling for you, they’d...they’d opened up something.  Inside me.  That...these emotions and needs and then she came along and was nice and pretty and interested in me and I thought I could just channel those emotions toward her and it would work but it didn’t because...” The waitress brought their milkshakes and he closed his hands firmly around his glass.  “Because she wasn’t you.”

“How do you know that’s not exactly what I was doing?”

“Because you’ve...” he trailed off.  “I suppose I don’t.”

“What were you going to say? Because you’ve what?”

He shrugged.  “Been here before.”

“Yes,” she said, “I’ve been in love before.  It doesn’t mean I love everyone I date.  Tim and I...we were how most adult couples start out.  We meet, we like each other, we start going out to see how it goes.  We actually were moving slower than most adults do.”

“How do you mean?”  Walter cocked his head.  “You went on three dates with the guy and then were ready to run off for a weekend in Lake Tahoe.”

“A weekend that you basically drove us to yourself,” she pointed out.  “But you know.  The whole three date rule thing.  Oh my gosh, you don’t know what that is, do you?” She asked at the look of puzzlement on his face.

“N...no.”

“It’s basically this social parameter that you wait for the third date to...to sleep together.”

“You...you and Tim, you...you didn’t?”

Now that the question had been overtly posed, part of her wanted to give him an exasperated sigh and say _why does it matter,_ but in Walter’s defense, she’d been the one to bring it up.  “No.”

“Good.” Walter immediately frowned at his reaction, reaching for his napkin and starting to tear it up into little pieces.  The paper, weakened by the sweat of the milkshake glass, broke apart in tufts.  “I...I mean...I’d been picturing him touching you and I...”

She reached out, taking the napkin from him.  “What about you and Linda?”

“No.”  Walter looked increasingly uncomfortable.  “I actually, uh...” he bit his lip, seeming to change his mind about whatever he was going to say.  “She probably would have been willing.  But I...” he looked around, seemingly for another napkin, growing agitated when he didn’t find one.

“Hey, Walter, relax,” she said, reaching out across the table and taking his hand. “Breathe, and talk to me.”

He sucked in a long, dry breath, coughing as a result.  “Linda and I did not engage in anything like that.  I suppose it was not serious.”

She squeezed his hand.  It was interesting, she supposed, to be so curious about what had gone on with others.  It shouldn’t matter – it really didn’t matter – but at the same time, she understood Walter’s relief at her and Tim having not slept together because she remembered how she felt when she saw Linda touching his arm.  The idea of them...

“Paige?”

“I’m sorry,” she said.  “I’m just...worn – out.”

“We should sleep a few hours before we continue on, huh?”

She nodded.  “I think there’s a motel.”

“How many beds?” The desk agent asked.

It was a casual question – and a necessary one.  In a business centric area such as this, colleagues often traveled together and two people asking for one room on a weekend did not mean one bed was to be assumed.

Walter, however, had no idea what to say.

Yes they were a couple now – but the day before they hadn’t been, and he had no idea if they were supposed to share one while they rested.  He remembered what she’d said earlier, about date rules, and expectations, and he hesitated.  “Uh...”

“Whatever is cheapest,” Paige said easily.

“Yes,” Walter blurted.  “Whatever is cheapest.”  He handed the agent his credit card.

“You’ll be on the second floor,” they said, handing back the card and two keys.  “You have until noon to check out.”

Paige smiled at them, glancing then at Walter.  “Let’s go.”

The room was small, right next to the ice machines – probably why it was one of the rooms that hadn’t been rented the previous night.  Walter hadn’t brought a change of clothes, but despite her heavily packed suitcases, Paige didn’t make any move to change.  Instead she dropped on the bed, gathering up two of the pillows under her head.

Walter walked over to the window and looked out.  They were on the back side of the hotel, facing the back parking lot and dumpsters instead of the main road.

“Walter.”

He thought he heard his name, but he might have been mistaken.  Then he heard the mattress squeak.  “Walter.”

He felt her hands on the backs of his arms, and her chin rested on his shoulder.  “Walter.  You’re exhausted.”

“Mmm hmm.”

“Come on.”

“You go.  I’ll be there in a minute.”

She squeezed his arms gently.  “Should I have asked for two beds?”

“N-no.  You were...whatever’s cheapest, that’s the...that’s what was smart.”

“Can I tell you something?”

He turned to face her.  She looked almost shy.  “I asked for whatever was cheapest because it meant they’d decide for us.”  His eyes widened – just slightly – and she dropped her eyes, almost appearing embarrassed.  “I wasn’t sure what...we’re together so _two_...but we’ve never... _been_ in _one_ , so...”

“I’m glad you said that,” he blurted, recognizing her rambling and realizing she needed him to interrupt.  “I uh...I wasn’t sure what to say to them.”

She gave him a relieved smile.  “Come on over there with me,” she said, tugging gently at his sleeves.  “We both need sleep.”

“About earlier,” he blurted.  “Linda and I, we didn’t...we didn’t sleep together.”

“I know.  You told me.”

“I haven’t _ever_....you know. _”_ He bit his lip.  Why was he self – conscious? Why did these things matter?

He watched her face as his words registered.  “Oh,” she said.  “Really?”

“I don’t, uh...I don’t think about it.  I’ve never felt anything toward anyone that’s made me want to.” He hoped she could fill in the blanks, how he had a touch aversion, how he didn’t trust easily, how he never thought that being physically and emotionally susceptible around another person was worth the few seconds of intensity that was the ultimate goal of most men in sexual encounters.  “I never imagined a scenario where I would want to.”

She nodded, touching his face gently.  “That’s okay,” she said.  “We don’t have to, you know.  You and I.  You know I’ve gone over eight years.” She leaned in briefly and kissed his neck.  “I love you, Walter.  You don’t need to...”

“No, but _I want to_ ,” he said forcefully, grabbing her hips and pulling them against his own.  His eyes searched hers, wanting her to understand.  “When it’s you, everything is different.”

She kissed him gently, then pressed her nose against his cheek.  “I want to, too,” she whispered.  “But don’t worry.  Not now.  Now we need to sleep so we can go home.  Okay? Come on.”

He nodded.  "Okay.  Yeah."

As Paige melted back down on the bed, Walter dropped down next to her, pleased at how nice the mattress felt.  He usually hated hotel beds, and was unable to really relax in them, but it had been so long since he slept.  And lying next to Paige, both of them close to surrendering into sleep, was comforting.

His eyelids were heavy, but he kept them half open.  She was watching him, a small smile on her face.  “What?” He asked sleepily, enjoying the way she was looking at him but not quite able to identify the expression.

“Hmmm,” she mumbled.  “Roll on your back.”

He did, looking curiously at her.  Paige scooted close to him, sliding her hand over his stomach and laying her head on his chest.  “Is this okay?” She asked.

She was cuddling him and asking if it was _okay_.  He adjusted his position so his arm was around her, and he tipped his head down in the direction of hers.  “Yes.  It’s nice.”

“Good,” she mumbled.  “Did you set the alarm?”

Walter reached over to the table and looked at his phone.  He was exhausted; the LCD seemed blindingly bright.  But he could see that they would be wakened in five hours.  “Yes.”

“Mmmm.” The sound was affectionate.  She tightened her arm around him.  “Good night.”

Walter considered reminding her that it was morning. He decided against it.


	7. Chapter 7

Happy and Toby fell asleep, stretched out on the couch, her head on his chest.

It was perhaps strange, for someone who didn't trust or share easily to admit her deepest, most heavily guarded secret of all, and for someone who had been put through the whiplash that he had over the past thirty six hours to just simply fall asleep without a conclusion to it all. But they were both exhausted, physically and emotionally, and the relief and familiarity and safety that came from him holding her on her couch was like an off switch, giving their tired bodies some relief. As Happy's tears dried up, as Toby's silently ran down his own cheeks – he couldn't let her know he was crying too, she would just feel bad – they sank into sleep.

It wasn't deep sleep, and it wasn't for long, but when they woke up, they both felt better. Toby certainly did, and he could see by the little smile that Happy shot him from where her chin rested on his chest that she did too. "I'm sorry I..." she bit her lip. "I'm not sorry I kept Mamie's secret, Toby. I need you to understand that. But I am sorry that everything happened the way it did."

"You told me not to propose," Toby said, realizing with a heavy heart how blatantly he'd gone against her wishes. "I lured you to the piano under false pretenses. Even without this...this marriage thing...that wasn't right. Last night I thought you'd betrayed my trust, but in reality, I betrayed yours. You're the last person ever that would intentionally break the trust of anyone. This marriage to Mamie only proves that."

"I suppose I could have lied. Told you flat out that I wouldn't get engaged in the first year of dating. At least then it might have deterred you another four months." A corner of her mouth curved up into a smirk.

"Shush," Toby said, glad that she didn't seem upset with him. "I'm sorry. I mean, I didn't know I was doing it but...I did force this to come out now." He licked his lower lip. "I got ahead of myself but I just love you so much, Happy. I just want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"Isn't that what we're doing now?"

He smiled then, and she seemed pleased. "You know," she continued, "that ring...I just kept staring at it. No one else would have thought of something like that."

"So, uh," Toby said, putting on a pretend competitive face, " _Mamie_ didn't propose with a custom ring?"

" _Mamie_ didn't propose," Happy said, tapping Toby's nose with the tip of her pointer finger. "We decided to get married over dinner."

"That's lame."

"Shut up."

Toby grinned. "So you did like the ring?" He tried to discreetly slip his hand into his pocket to retrieve it, but his position on the couch and her weight on top of him made such discreetness impossible. But he wiggled the box out of his pocket and handed it to her. "You can take a closer look, if you'd like."

She pushed herself up slightly to give herself use of both hands and cracked open the box, rolling her lips inward and nodding slowly. "Yeah," she said, her voice emotional. "Yeah, you know me."

"I like to think so, Hap."

She looked at him, tension returning to her face. "We can't get married, Toby. Not now. Not even soon. How would it look?"

"Sam Rupp is still alive?"

"With as many grudges as you've got hairs on your head," Happy said. "But he has bigger targets than Mamie. Still...I can't just rush into things. Even after she's declared dead. If we got engaged ahead of that day, we'd be getting married within a few months of it passing by. That's too fast."

"You might be overthinking this," Toby said. "You haven't seen her in almost seven years. That's enough time to move on. Many move on more quickly. There's nothing wrong with that."

She sighed. "But what if I'm not?"

He nodded. "Okay. We can wait to get married. But I do want you to have this." She was already holding the box with the ring, but he closed her hands firmly around it. "It's for you, Hap."

"You want to be secretly engaged?"

"We were secretly dating for a little while there, if you remember." He smiled. "Keep it in your nightstand. We can trot it out when you feel the time is right."

"What do we tell the others?"

"You decide."

She bit the inside of her cheek, nodding, and Toby watched her face as she glanced to the side and mulled over his suggestion. Then she looked back at him. "Okay."

He raised his eyebrows. "Okay?"

"Yes."

"What?"

She smiled. "I'm saying yes, Toby. If we're going to be secretly engaged, don't we have to _get_ engaged?"

"So..."

"So yes I'll marry you, you goof," she said, smiling and leaning forward to kiss him, her hand trapped between their chests, still holding the ring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be one more chapter after this one, with both couples and the other characters. As always, comments welcome and appreciated.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here (finally, I know) is the last chapter of What Comes Next. I hope you all enjoyed this fic. I certainly had a good time writing it. As always, kudos and comments are loved and appreciated.

“Come on, Ralph,” Sylvester said.  “This is our stop.”

He knew Ralph knew the route from the Dodd apartment to the garage, he could get there after being blindfolded and spun around.  But after the events of the previous night, he felt that he had to be a point of consistency, of reassurance, in the boy’s life.

Ralph’s mother was off on a weekend away that she didn’t want to go on, in a relationship that her heart wasn’t in.  Happy and Toby, who had contributed significantly to raising Ralph over the past two years, were fractured.  And if anyone could pick up on the complete distress that Walter was in, it was the boy who was so much like him.

Scorpion was a safe space that had suddenly become unstable and no one else seemed to be giving much thought as to how this all was affecting the ten year old.

So Sylvester would do any little thing to combat that environment.  “You got your bag?”

Ralph nodded.  “Yeah.”

The bus came to a stop.  “Alright,” Sylvester said.  “Let’s go.”

Coming back to the garage had been Ralph’s idea.  Sylvester had just wanted to spend the entire weekend at his place, in their pajamas.  Watching movies and reading comic books and forgetting the burdens their genius saddled them both with at times.  They could go back to being smart and critical to the survival of humankind on Monday.

But even though the garage had, just twenty hours before, been a noxious, unstable environment, it was the source of many happy, comforting memories.  And Sylvester was beginning to understand that it called to Ralph like a homing beacon.  He wanted to be there.  He needed to be there.

Sylvester figured they’d goof off for an hour or so and then Ralph would go up to Walter’s bed and fall asleep, as neither of them had gotten a wink the night before.  He was fine with that.  They could do whatever Ralph wanted.  Monday was going to be tense and awkward at best and downright toxic at worst.

“Toby?”

By saying his name, Ralph alerted Sylvester to the older man’s presence.  Toby was kneeling in front of the piano, brushing confetti pieces into a dust pan.  Something painful tugged at Sylvester’s heart.  “Hey, Toby, let us help you with that.”

“No worries,” he said.  “I just think, when Walter and Paige get back, we’ll want this place to look decent again.  Put that night behind us.  It wasn’t…it wasn’t a good night.”

“Are you doing okay?” Sylvester asked quietly, glancing at Ralph.  The boy had his hands folded in front of him, and he looked at Toby, awaiting his response.  Sylvester looked back at his friend.  “Toby?”

“Yeah,” he said, smiling and nodding.  “I’m doing really good.”

“R-really?” Sylvester turned his head to the side and eyed him.  “Wait, really?”

They all turned as the door opened.  “Hey so Kovelsky’s didn’t have…” Happy trailed off, coming to a halt.  There was silence in the garage for a moment, and then she straightened her posture and smiled.  “Hey there.”

“Happy?” Ralph looked between her and Toby, his eyes rapidly flying back and forth, and then they settled on Sylvester, who couldn’t do anything but shrug.

“Uh, so, guys,” Toby said, standing up and walking over to Happy.  “We have something to say.” He looked down at her.  “You want to do the honors, love bug?”

“Toby and I are still together,” she said.  “And…” She looked at him.  “Don’t you want to do this wen Walter and Paige get back?”

Sylvester realized it was the second time since he and Ralph had entered the garage that someone had referred to _Walter and Paige_ as a unit.  “Walt…and, and Paige? Do you guys know something I don’t?”

“Walt loves her,” Happy said.  “But we all already knew that.  Except for him, of course.”

Sylvester glanced at Ralph just in time to see it click on the boy’s face.  “Walter went to Tahoe?”

Toby nodded, a grin on his face.  “He did.”

“To tell her he loves her?”

Toby’s grin was the kind where his lips were pressed together in an attempt to restrain excitement.  “Uh huh!”

“Toby,” Sylvester said in a slightly uneasy tone.  Ralph had completely lit up at the news, but they didn’t know if Walter had found her, much less if he’d actually confessed and if the confession was well received by Paige.

“No it’s okay,” Toby said, holding up a hand.  “She texted me an hour ago saying they’d be home soon.  And she included the old fashioned smiley face – not the emoji.  That tells me it’s actually Walter texting and she told him to put the smiley face.  Which if they’re driving together and he’s using her phone, they’re good.  They’re all good.”

He’d barely gotten the sentence out when the garage door opened again and the subjects of their conversation walked inside.  “Hey, guys,” Paige said, a smile on her face.  She looked surprised at the sight of her son.  “Ralph!  You okay, sweetie?”

Ralph ran over and threw his arms around his mother with an enthusiasm that she clearly wasn’t used to, but she smiled as she dropped down to his level and rocked him.

“He-e-ey!” Toby said, a broad smile on his face as he walked over.  “You two!”  He hugged Walter.  “You guys did it!”

“Uh,” Walter shifted awkwardly as Toby moved on to hug Paige.  “N-no, no we didn’t!”

Paige gave him a nudge with her elbow.  “He means we became a couple, Walter,” she said under her breath.

“ _Oh_.” Walter nodded rapidly.  “Yes that, that we did do.”

“How are _you_ doing?” Paige asked, putting a hand on Toby’s arm.

“They have news!” Ralph said excitedly.

“News?” Paige grinned at Walter and then looked expectedly back at Toby.  “What’s going on?”

“We talked a lot,” Happy said.  “I had some stuff that given the way the cards fell, I realized he needed to know.  I’m not comfortable with the idea of everyone here learning the details, but please know that it is nothing traumatic.”  She made brief eye contact with everyone in the room, making it extra clear that she would not be taking questions.  “We initially discussed keeping this a secret, but secrets haven’t been very good to any of us lately, so…” She smiled when Toby reached for her hand and linked their fingers.  Their elbows bent, lifting their entwined hands up to shoulder level.  “We’re engaged.”

Sylvester lost track of who hugged who in what order, but when things settled down, he surveyed the scene before him with a smile playing easily across his face.  Ralph stood with his back against his mother, her hands reaching around his front, his fingers curled around hers.  Walter was next to them, an arm slung around Paige’s waist, her left hip pressing against his right.  Toby was hugging Happy to him, and although her head was nestled into his chest, Sylvester could still see her smile.

Suddenly, Sylvester realized something was still wrong.  “Where’s Cabe?”

Everyone’s faces fell instantly.  “Oh crap,” Toby said, pulling out his phone.  “I’ll get him here, just…just everyone act surprised when we tell it again.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I'd love to hear what you think. :)


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